MANILA, Philippines?In our columns and articles for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, we express a lot of ?druthers,? things we want to happen on the arts and entertainment scene to make it livelier, more responsible and generally better. Much of the time, we don?t get what we want?but, there are golden moments when we do, and they?re worth celebrating:
When we reviewed GMA-7?s documentary on global warming, ?Signos,? we appreciated the focused way that it made the impending disaster come to bear on the Philippines?but, we rued the fact that the significant production was aired so very late at night, when most viewers would be sound asleep. We urged the channel to replay the show at an earlier hour, for greater viewer impact. ?Pretty please?
Well, the good news is that ?Signos? will be replayed tonight at 9:10 p.m. Do make it a point to watch it this second?and earlier?time around, won?t you?
Bb. Joyce Bernal directs
Sometime back, writing about the movie KC Concepcion and Richard Gutierrez were being tapped to costar in a movie for Star Cinema, we expressed the wish that the production?s director would be chosen from a short list made up of Chito Roño, Joyce Bernal and Laurice Guillen. Well, now Star Cinema?s verdict is in: Binibining Joyce Bernal is ?it.?
Bb. Joyce is really a fine choice to meg the rom-com project, because she?s good with young actors, and combines comedy and drama in an engaging mix in her productions. In addition, having started out as a film editor, she tells a brisk and logical story?and, in today?s movies, that?s key.
Changes on ?The Singing Bee?
Our recent review of ABS-CBN?s ?The Singing Bee? noted that, as per the original rules, the day?s champion ended up going home with nothing if he or she didn?t get any of the final song choices right. That was patently unfair, so we urged the production to reward the day?s champion with a prize of P50,000.
It looks like the people behind the show saw merit in our suggestion, so the day?s champion now gets?no, not P50,000, but P20,000, which isn?t bad for starters.
Incidentally, other changes have been made on the lyric-recall program: The day?s champion now competes against the past telecast?s holdover winner. The change makes the final round more exciting, and the holdover winner is given more chances to win the P1-million jackpot. In fact, once such holdover champ did win the jackpot before he dropped out.
Another improvement that the quiz-game show can make is to come up with better male singers to perform the songs up for lyric-recalling. Some of them are OK, but others don?t articulate lyrics all that well?and look rather scruffy besides.
On the other hand, the show?s female singers are both vocally and visually appealing, so they should stay. As for the dancers on the program, they continue to be an unnecessary distraction.
